MSI recently launched the MS-9A29, which is a fanless small form factor (SFF) embedded PC. The new PC measures 196mm x 136mm x 43mm and weighs 1.2 kg. The MS-9A29 is encased in a small black chassis that is covered in fins to aid in passive cooling with the front and back banels hosting various IO ports.

Front IO includes four USB 2.0 ports and four COM ports. The back panel holds two RJ45 GbE jacks driven by two Intel 82583V NICs, one line out audio jack (Realtek ALC887 HD codec), two USB 2.0 ports, a single HDMI port, and one VGA port. Finally, the case provides two openings for antenna passthroughs.

Internally, the MSI MS-9A29 features an Intel Atom D2550 processor (dual core at 1.8GHz, 10W TDP), Intel GMA 3650 GPU (400MHz), a single DDR3 SO-DIMM slot (4GB maximum), and Intel NM10 Express chipset. The motherboard can be accessed by a removeable bottom panel on the case. The system supports one SATA drive, one mSATA drive, and two Mini-PCI-E cards. One mini-PCI-E slot can be used for a 3G SIM card adapter.

The SFF MSI MS-9A29 can be mounted to the back of monitors or on a wall. It supports Windows 7 and Windows XP and can output video to two simultaneous displays. It is aimed at kiosks, signage, POS, and industrial machines.

More information can be found on the MS-9A29 product page. However, the company has not yet released pricing or availability (expect it to be on the pricier side though as it is aimed at business/industrial users).

Laptops have been evolving towards thin, light, efficient, and powerful... enough for web browsing and that is about it. The internet is a popular thing, go figure, and many manufacturers are nervous about marketing a laptop or tablet which does much beyond that. Razer took a bit of a gamble with their Blade and Edge line of laptops and tablets, respectively, but they have since shown promise.

Now MSI has not been a stranger to gaming laptops. While not as popular in North America, although they are gaining traction, they are experienced in this market. Perhaps bringing along Steelseries, a main competitor of Razer, might increase your chances? At the very least, you will probably have an epic keyboard.

The GS70 Stealth "ultra gaming notebook" combines an Intel 4th Generation Core i7 with an NVIDIA GTX 765M, up to 16GB of RAM, and a pair of SSDs into a 17.3" aluminum-magnesium alloy case. Also present, Creative Labs SoundBlaster Cinema audio and a Killer ethernet connection.

The SteelSeries keyboard is backlit in whatever color you desire. Each button has been rearranged in a unique order that I have yet to see; some keys, such as numpad 0 and right shift, to crush the number pad in with the main keyboard which effectively provides many of the benefits of a tenkeyless design.

A final note, albeit an important one, is their addition of multiple video outputs. Through "Matrix Display", three 1080p displays can be connected in addition to the built-in 1080p monitor. Certain users could set up a multi-monitor workstation at their desk for this laptop to dock into.

MSI recently announced the GTX 770 Gaming 4GB which combines a factory overclocked GK-104 GPU with 4GB of GDDR5 memory and the company’s Twin Frozr IV cooler on a custom PCB. This card joins the existing MSI GTX 770 with 2GB of memory in the company’s GPU lineup.

Specifications the new graphics card include a GK-104 based GTX 770 GPU with a base clock of 1137 MHz and a GPU Boost clockspeed of 1189 MHz. This compares to the 4GB Zotac GTX 770’s base and boost clockspeeds of 1059 MHz and 1098 MHz and to the reference NVIDIA GTX 770’s 1046 MHz base and 1085 MHz boost. In short, the upcoming MSI card is one of the fastest-clocked models with 4GB of memory. Unfortunately, that 4GB of GDDR5 does not come factory overclocked, and is instead left at the stock 7 GHz clockspeed.

Further, the MSI card is cooled by the company’s Twin Frozr IV cooler. This HSF features two 100mm fans that cool an aluminum fin stack. In turn, that fin stack attaches to the GPU block via five heatpipes. There is no backplate, but the card does have a reinforcing plate between the PCB and cooler (which also, likely, helps dissipate a small bit of the heat generated by the VRMs and RAM).

The card is essentially the same card as the existing 2GB version, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The model number on the 4GB card is N770 TF 4GD5/OC. MSI has not released pricing or availability, but expect it to be around $430 and up for grabs later this summer.

At just under $200 the MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming offers great value and performance for someone building a Haswell based system. It has all of the current features you expect from a high end board from MSI such as OC Genie 4, Military Class 4 components, super ferrite chokes, Hi-C Capacitors, Dark Caps and a Killer NIC. [H]ard|OCP was also very glad to see the end of MSI's ClickBIOS and were much happier with the new UEFI BIOS that MSI is using on their new boards. With three PCIe 16x slots you can utilize multiple GPUs and 10 SATA 6Gbps ports ought to satisfy almost any user. It picked up a Gold Award from [H] and you can see why in the full review.

"MSI’s GAMING series is back with an all new entry. The Z87-GD65 GAMING is certainly a promising contender and is one of the more unique offerings we’ve seen from MSI. We liked the last GAMING board we looked at, and we have liked all previous GD-65 series motherboards, hopefully this followup entry can measure up."

Another Wrench – GeForce GTX 760M Results

Just recently, I evaluated some of the current processor-integrated graphics options from our new Frame Rating performance metric. The results were very interesting, proving Intel has done some great work with its new HD 5000 graphics option for Ultrabooks. You might have noticed that the MSI GE40 didn’t just come with the integrated HD 4600 graphics but also included a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M, on-board. While that previous article was to focus on the integrated graphics of Haswell, Trinity, and Richland, I did find some noteworthy results with the GTX 760M that I wanted to investigate and present.

The MSI GE40 is a new Haswell-based notebook that includes the Core i7-4702MQ quad-core processor and Intel HD 4600 graphics. Along with it MSI has included the Kepler architecture GeForce GTX 760M discrete GPU.

This GPU offers 768 CUDA cores running at a 657 MHz base clock but can stretch higher with GPU Boost technology. It is configured with 2GB of GDDR5 memory running at 2.0 GHz.

If you didn’t read the previous integrated graphics article, linked above, you’re going to have some of the data presented there spoiled and so you might want to get a baseline of information by getting through that first. Also, remember that we are using our Frame Rating performance evaluation system for this testing – a key differentiator from most other mobile GPU testing. And in fact it is that difference that allowed us to spot an interesting issue with the configuration we are showing you today.

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Introduction

Courtesy of MSI

The Z87 MPOWER board is one of the first boards released as part of MSI's Z87 update of the much vaunted MPOWER line. The board supports the next generation of Intel processors based on the LGA1150 socket (Haswell), and is packed full of features and overclocking goodness. In-line with the MPower's established theme, the Z87 MPower board maintain's the black and yellow stylings from the last generation with the MSI brand logo proudly displeased on the chipset heat sink. At a retail price of $229.99, the Z87 MPower would be a nice value add to any enthusiast or gaming system.

If rumors hold true, consumers may be greeted with a new AMD Radeon graphics card today, in the form of a Graphics Core Next (GCN) based HD 7730. According to the leak by Videocardz, MSI will be launching a new card based on this budget GPU called the R7730-1GD5V1. It will use a shrouded fan and heatsink cooler with the company's propeller blade fan technology. Afterburner support and solid capacitors are also features of the MSI card that is rumored to use this new GPU chip. Video ouptuts include one DVI, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort connector.

The HD 7730 GPU itself is based on the same basic Cape Verde chip as the existing HD 7750 and HD 7770 GPUs. However, the HD 7730 has fewer stream processors. Specifically, the 7730 will use 384 stream processors clocked at 800 MHz. It will be paired with 1GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, with the memory clocked at 4.5 GHz. For comparison, the HD 7750 features 512 stream processors clocked at 800 MHz along with 1GB of GDDR5 at 4.5GHz.

This new chip will not be as fast as the similarly-clocked HD 7750, but it will also be cheaper and use less power as it is able to get all of its power from the PCI-E bus (no PCI-E power cable from the PSU required).

The MSI HD 7730 graphics card is rumored to launch sometime today for 70 Euros, or about $90 USD. (At least we will not have long to wait to see if the rumors are true!)

The GPU Midrange Gets a Kick

I like budget video cards. They hold a soft spot in my heart. I think the primary reason for this is that I too was once a poor college student and could not afford the really expensive cards. Ok, so this was maybe a few more years ago than I like to admit. Back when the Matrox Millennium was very expensive, I ended up getting the STB Lightspeed 128 instead. Instead of the 12 MB Voodoo 2 I went for the 8 MB version. I was never terribly fond of paying top dollar for a little extra performance. I am still not fond of it either.

The sub-$200 range is a bit of a sweet spot that is very tightly packed with products. These products typically perform in the range of a high end card from 3 years ago, yet still encompass the latest features of the top end products from their respective companies. These products can be overclocked by end users to attain performance approaching cards in the $200 to $250 range. Mind, there are some specific limitations to the amount of performance one can actually achieve with these cards. Still, what a user actually gets is very fair when considering the price.

Today I cover several flavors of cards from three different manufacturers that are based on the AMD HD 7790 and the NVIDIA GTX 650 Ti BOOST chips. These range in price from $129 to $179. The features on these cards are amazingly varied, and there are no “sticker edition” parts to be seen here. Each card is unique in its design and the cooling strategies are also quite distinct. Users should not expect to drive monitors above 1920x1200, much less triple monitors in Surround and Eyefinity.

Now let us quickly go over the respective chips that these cards are based on.

MSI is joining the GTX 760 fray with its own version of NVIDIA's latest 700-series graphics cards called the N760 TF 2GD5/OC GTX 760. This midrange gaming card pairs an overclocked GTX 760 GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 memory and the company's Twin Frozr IV cooler.

Specifcations include a GTX 760 with base clock of 1085 MHz and a boost clock of 1150 MHz. It further has 2GB of GDDR5 memory, but it does not come factory overclocked (6008 MHz stock).

The cooler on the MSI GTX 760 is the Twin Frozr IV which features two 100mm fans, an aluminum heatsink with heapipes connecting the fin stack to the GPU base plate. The fans use MSI's "propeller blade" technology to increase airflow.

The N760 TF 2GD5/OC is not the fastest factory overclocked card, but it should be among the quietest with its two large fans that can spin at lower RPMs while still providing good cooling performance. It also opens up doors to users overclocking beyond the factory overclocked speeds, depending on the particular chip they get.

It is available now for $259.99 at various online retailers, including Newegg.